The sports celebration turned into a catastrophe in the center of the English city of Liverpool when at 6 p.m. local time - 7 p.m. in Spain - a car plowed into the crowd celebrating the local team's victory in the British football league. The car drove into the crowd on Water Street, just minutes after the team's parade had passed through.
"There are still four people hospitalized in serious condition and we hope they recover quickly," said Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool region, on Tuesday.
Mobile phone footage shows a dark-colored vehicle hitting people on the road at least twice. The videos show individuals being thrown by the impact, while others end up under the wheels and body of the black car until it has to stop, likely because bodies blocked the wheels.
David Kitchin, director of the Northwest Ambulance Service (NWAS), stated that emergency services attended to a total of 47 people after the incident and added that "unfortunately, four of the injured were children."
"We can confirm that our teams treated 20 patients at the scene for minor injuries that did not require hospitalization. Twenty-seven patients in total were taken to the hospital by ambulance and we believe that two of them, including one of the minors, suffered serious injuries," detailed Kitchin. According to the information provided, no deaths have been reported.
The only information known about the perpetrator is that he is a 53-year-old British man. According to Liverpool police, officers had to protect him to prevent him from being lynched and the vehicle from being destroyed by the crowd. In fact, when the car drove into the crowd, people broke the rear windows in an attempt to stop the aggression.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the action as "horrific" in a message posted on the X social network. Similar statements have been made by Liverpool's mayor, Steve Rotheram, and by representatives in the city's districts in Parliament.
Regarding echoes of Islamic fundamentalism, British police stated that the incident was an isolated one and not related to terrorism. "What I can tell you is that we believe this is an isolated incident and we are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with it," stated Jennifer Sims, Merseyside's deputy chief of police, at a press conference. "Thorough investigations are being carried out to determine the circumstances that led to the collision, and it is crucial that people do not speculate or spread misinformation on social media," she added.